Now when the computer boots it will go to that file in the Microsoft directory and boot to Linux grub. This is the way HP pavilion laptops at least the newer one handle booting preinstalled windows 8.1. I can probably now put a path in the Linux mint grub file pointing to the Win8 directory so I can boot window from grub. I can't use the one that grub 2 finds because That will just bring me back to Mint.
Mel

This is an old thread that needs to be looked at a little closer. I have a HP laptop that falls in the same category as Mel's. All that Mel instructed to do works great, but now No Windows 8.1 at all. Using refind, or EFI file doesn't work. It brings the grub up and when I try to boot Win it gos right to Mint. Are there any coders out there that might be able to point to both Win 8.1 and Mint?
Thanks

I looked at yours Thank you, but really got tired of all of the extra work. I bought my HP laptop with win 8.1, so wanted to keep it. I also ripped HP a new one by telling them they might as well just let other OS's to be installed without jumping their mountains in order to install the other OS's, because there are ways of doing it and keeping win too. I did what mhbell said where the grub comes up for Mint, but before it gos to the grub, I held ESC> Boot to EFI File and then:
EFI > boot >bootx64.efi
and win 8.1 boots. A few more steps, but good enough for me. It works and I'm kinda happy.
Thanks again...

It really is frustrating. I've tried the method mhbell suggested but nothing happens - win8 still boots first. In fact i've been copying and posting files in Nemo, experimenting and again, nothing.
Is there a way to make Mint boot first at all on HP Envy 14 ??

Before changing anything do a backup of your system with win8. Then follow mhbell to the T. You have to do the modifications through the Terminal. Not Nemo. It's the only way without haveing to do a lot of work that I've found and it got my HP going.

reeby wrote:It really is frustrating. I've tried the method mhbell suggested but nothing happens - win8 still boots first. In fact i've been copying and posting files in Nemo, experimenting and again, nothing.
Is there a way to make Mint boot first at all on HP Envy 14 ??

With some computers you need to (re)set boot order from bios-settings after an installation. If you see choices "Windows Boot manager" and "ubuntu", set "ubuntu" as the first bootable device, so that grub menu appears.

reeby wrote:It really is frustrating. I've tried the method mhbell suggested but nothing happens - win8 still boots first. In fact i've been copying and posting files in Nemo, experimenting and again, nothing.
Is there a way to make Mint boot first at all on HP Envy 14 ??

With some computers you need to (re)set boot order from bios-settings after an installation. If you see choices "Windows Boot manager" and "ubuntu", set "ubuntu" as the first bootable device, so that grub menu appears.

Thanks for reply! That's the thing - i don't see it. When i get into the menu (F9) i get this:

reeby wrote:It really is frustrating. I've tried the method mhbell suggested but nothing happens - win8 still boots first. In fact i've been copying and posting files in Nemo, experimenting and again, nothing.
Is there a way to make Mint boot first at all on HP Envy 14 ??

With some computers you need to (re)set boot order from bios-settings after an installation. If you see choices "Windows Boot manager" and "ubuntu", set "ubuntu" as the first bootable device, so that grub menu appears.

Thanks for reply! That's the thing - i don't see it. When i get into the menu (F9) i get this:

administrollaattori, Thanks for tip! But I'm not an expert in Linux.
I tried pointing bootmanager to bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi
from Windows, as it said in the linked article, but again - nothing.
I checked - my Mint is Installed in EFI mode (if that's any indicator)... but that's as far as my knowledge goes.

It all is beautiful to read what you guys are doing.
But is it also possible to do things (very) simple? So booting in EFI- modus or whatever without higher computerknowledge?

For years now I use PCLOS (with redo mbr for the bootloader) on a smaller parttition as a switch between some partitions (all made with the nice Gparted) for testing or using several distro's. It has worked flawless on several pc's. I hope I don't ever have to do what you are doing.

When I had to do it, I booted off my Mint disc (or USB drive), opened up a terminal (gterm for the Cinnamon flavor), and I belive I had to install efibootmgr. If so, then I would have had to connect the laptop to the internet and type into the terminal:

Which, for my list above would tell it to boot rEFInd first, then failing that, WIndows. Your numbers will be different.

There is a similar command for Windows, but I don't not know how effective it is.

Dngrsone, do I have to do it from the live USB?
Maybe that's where the problem is, because every time I set the boot order with efibootmgr for the Mint (0000 in my case) to boot first it gets back to the original boot order - SolidState Disk (0001) after I reboot my computer:

As I recall from the rEFInd site, there may be several copies of the Windows EFI bootloader, and the hardware may be booting from somewhere other than the regular Windows directory. If the bootloader is in the root folder, then that may be what is causing your problems. You can try renaming that file (I usually add a .bak) just to see if it helps any.

Also, you may have to edit the EFI configuration from within Windows. If you are using Win 8, then when you get to the power down menu, hold down the Shift key and select Restart, then (I believe, it's been a while since I did this) go to the Advanced menu and see if you can change the default from there.

ReFind really worked well for me. I had issues with an hp 2000-2b09 computer where I managed to somehow install ubuntu 14.10 on the hdd almost the same way it does usually without the UEFI on a computer. I let linux control the whole install.
I had found a way to enter bios and get the boot manager there to allow me to boot from the dvd. I am not sure if I had to enable legacy which seems to automatically stop secure boot.
However, I learned that the UEFI boot sequence would necessarily still be used ahead of any boot under legacy. The hdd was not listed in the secure boot list of devices so it could not go there to find the grub.
I would have to hit the esc key as soon as I turned on the computer, then when the message appeared saying that the boot was paused, I would hit the f10 key to get to the menu for boot. Then selecting f9 would enter the grub list and it would all be a normal boot from then on depending on which you selected to boot.

Once I ran the refind program, all was fine with no need to see grub but only to choose what to boot up. It works like a charm.
I might add that I am not so good at linux command line and did the step by step proceedure to get the refind from the repository and then update and install it.
If I can do it, just about anyone should be able to do it too.

rajumukherjee wrote:Nice to hear it but would it solve the problem of bios based laptop when booting from another version of lunix or windows not work and bios section in cmos is not accesable

No. If the computer is truly BIOS-based (has no EFI or UEFI), then rEFInd will be useless on it. (Well, there is the possibility of running a software EFI such as DUET or Clover, but that adds another layer of complexity that won't help with your specific problem.)

I have run into a wall and my head is starting to hurt. I've done this before, but I can't seem to replicate my earlier success.

I have a Toshiba Satellite P55t-B5154 dual-booted with Win 8.1 and Mint 17 KDE. I installed rEFInd using the apt-get install method, then ran the install.sh script for good measure.

I can Shift-restart from Win 8.1 to get rEFInd to load, but Windows is still the default. I used efibootcfg to change the default bootloader to rEFInd, but apparently the machine is ignoring that setting (yes, it is persistent, just being ignored).

Toshiba has Windows EFI boot loaders scattered throughout the \boot folder like pigeon food. I am wondering which one is the default. I don't want to rename each file until I hit on the correct one, but that may be my only choice, unless someone here has a better idea.